


Humanity Still Surprises

by Peanutbutterassistant



Category: RWBY
Genre: Canon Compliant, First Meetings, M/M, Missing Scene, OF I DONT GET A SNOWPINES INTERACTION ILL SCREAM, This can be platonic, Why does Ozpin have so many internalized issues someone get this man a therapist, bisexual Oscar
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-08
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-15 07:00:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29929659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Peanutbutterassistant/pseuds/Peanutbutterassistant
Summary: Whitley continued to hold eye contact as he reached a long arm to the top of the railing and stood up. He was a good head or so taller than Oscar, and looked down at him with half lidded eyes. “You ask a lot of questions, you know that?”Events take place between Volume 8 Chapter  10 and chapter 11
Relationships: Oscar Pine/Whitley Schnee
Comments: 5
Kudos: 44





	Humanity Still Surprises

**Author's Note:**

> I just want them to interact once. One time. That’s it.

This was too big of a group to be rushing up the stairs in a giant clump. And yet everyone involved rushed up the stairs after Weiss to her room, to see Nora. 

After Weiss had mentioned what had happened to her, how she was bed ridden now, everyone had wanted to go make sure she was okay. Oscar specifically didn’t know much about Penny Pendola, but he had been told she was unoccupied in the same room. 

Oscar had to jog to keep up with everyone else. Sometimes being significantly younger than everyone else in the save-the-world group had its drawbacks. The motion made his chest ache. He probably had ugly bruises all along his ribs, and most likely some internal bleeding. 

Nothing he couldn’t handle, of course, but he should probably ask Jaune for help soon. Oscar felt like garbage, he was tired, he felt like collapsing. He hadn’t stopped moving since escaping the whale, and he was sore all over.

But that didn’t stop him from being the first into Weiss’s old room. As the doors were thrown open, Oscar saw two figures sitting in the bed instead of the singular one he was expecting. 

Nora lay with her head on the pillows and her legs underneath the blanket. She had lightning scars up her arms, but otherwise she looked okay. She was having an animated conversation with a boy he vaguely recognized. The boy was sitting on the edge of her bed. He looked at her like he was listening to her, but in the most absent way Oscar had ever seen. Almost like the boy practiced pretending to listen to people. 

Nora’s eyes lit up when she saw her friends pile into the room. The boy- startled- jumped away from the bed to allow space for everyone else. 

There was a lot of overlapping concerns.

“Are you okay?”

“What happened?”

Nora brushed them all off, but he could tell she was tired. A man with a Carmel mustache Oscar didn’t recognize said he was going to go get more supplies for Penny, and exited swiftly. Which brought everyone’s attention to the sleeping girl in the corner. 

Penny’s face looked peaceful in her dreams. Oscar wondered if robots who has auras even had dreams. It was weird to think of Penny as a robot, she looked and acted so human.

“We should plan our next move.” Said Ruby, suddenly. Oscar flinched. Her voice sounded so flat and resigned. He remembered meeting Ruby, his first impression of her was her entering a room storming, angry at being disrupted from reading, then disappointed and frustrated at her uncle for returning home drunk. 

Oscar had been intimidated by her at their first meeting, he still was, in a sense. But Oscar knew Ruby now, she was his friend, she was approachable. 

(He found most of the new huntsmen and huntresses in the group intimidating, actually. He had been awed by them, he had never met huntsmen before. It hadn’t helped that all of them were unfairly attractive. Like. All of them. Oscar was used to it now, though). 

He wondered what had happened to her in the day since he last saw her?

The group agreed nonetheless, and Ruby, Weiss, Yang, and Blake walked back out the door, where Emerald had been awkwardly waiting for them. Oscar was about to follow them when Jaune put a hand on his shoulder.

“We should at least try to heal up your bruises before you do anything else.” He said.

Oscar turned to face him fully. They hadn't done so before because no one had wanted to stop moving, which Oscar understood. “Worth a shot.”

Jaune closed his eyes to concentrate, and Oscar could both see and feel when his aura activated. It glowed white, and Oscar could feel his own aura calming the ache in his sides. Numbness turned to a sharp pain and then calmed down to a dull ache. 

“That’s about as much as I can do.” Said Jaune.

“I  _ do _ feel better.” Oscar reassured him.

Jaune beamed. “We can keep trying, if you want.”

Oscar looked over Jaune’s shoulder, where Ren was trying to make eye contact with Nora, and Nora was looking at everything in the room except for Ren.

“You know what,” said Oscar, “I feel totally fine. I should probably catch up with the others.”

Jaune shrugged. “If you say so.”

Oscar bolted from the room as fast as he could without looking suspicious. As soon as he was far enough down the hall, Ozpin decided to speak up.

_ As much as I, and I’m sure the others as well, appreciate that you wish to help with planning our next move, you should not have lied to your friend, Mr. Arc. _ He spoke.  _ Our wounds are not severe enough to prohibit any form of combat or movement currently, but it could get worse if not healed.  _

_ Stop worrying,  _ Oscar responded,  _ I feel fine. Better than before, at the least. Besides, I’m sure our aura will be recovered enough to start healing us any minute now. _

Oscar ran a hand through his hair, trying to calm down what he knew must have been a wreck.  _ Though it’s funny how these are  _ our  _ wounds, but Jaune is  _ my  _ friend. _

Ozpin paused before speaking.  _ Would you call my relationship with our group friendly? _

_ If you just explained to them what happened, they’d forgive you.  _ Said Oscar.

_ You cannot understand.  _ Ozpin spoke.  _ You will someday, but you don’t yet have the experiences that I have gone through. I have lived countless lifetimes, Oscar. Rarely do people think of me fondly after learning these things about me. Especially since I have been keeping them secret. _

_ Why all the secrecy then?  _ Oscar asked. He passed a large portrait of the Schnee family, when they were much younger. Jacque had black hair.  _ Why is it the default for you to conceal all of this? Why were you so afraid? _

_ I- it’s-  _ Ozpin broke off.  _ I have explained this to you before. Theodore was not the first person to turn their back on me. Your friends were not the first to hate me after learning what I am. I learned early on that there are very few responses to this sort of news. People either reverse me as a god, something I despise. They feel shocked and betrayed that I wasn’t who they thought I was, or that I wasn’t like them. Human. Some become angry and turn their backs on me. Others become overwhelmed with fear of Salem and do the same. Sometimes it does go over well, but them things will sour and I am abandoned once again. Rarely does this go over well. _

_ I can’t scare off my allies. Then Salem has already won.  _ Ozpin concluded.

_ I can’t imagine being turned away from so many people, people you cared for and you thought cared about you, but isn’t lying dividing us?  _ Oscar asked.  _ We need to bring humanity together. That’s how we beat Salem. People can’t rally behind you if they can’t trust you. _

_ I know, it’s quite the conundrum, isn’t it?  _ Ozpin mused. He paused for a moment.  _ I want to apologize to them. _

_ You do?  _ Said Oscar.

_ Yes.  _ Ozpin confirmed.  _ I was aware what I was doing was wrong as I was doing it. No one likes being lied to. And I  _ am  _ sorry. But it’s a very hard thing to unlearn, this fear, this distrust. But no one should let fear control them. Not even me.  _ Especially _ not me. I may be fairly disconnected with humanity- as anyone would be at this point- but even I don’t particularly like it when my trust is betrayed thousands of times over. Mostly by people I had come to care for. _

_ But that doesn’t mean that I should stop trusting entirely. I should have told the overs the truth.  _ Ozpin concluded.  _ They most likely will not forgive me, and that is alright. But if we are to face this threat together, we must trust one another. And that means you and I as well.  _

Oscar frowned.  _ You don’t care if they forgive you? Don’t you want them to like you? _

Ozpin paused. “ _ Like” has nothing to do with it. _

_ Doesn’t it?  _ Oscar asked.  _ I’d rather travel the world with people who like me then people who don’t. _

Ozpin laughed lightly.  _ You make a fair point. Oscar, I am not a well liked person. That’s alright, I don’t need to be. The only reason I am on this planet is to do a job. Not to become attached to people. _

_ You really don’t want to be cared about?  _ Oscar asked.

Ozpin didn’t answer.

The grand staircase was finally in view, when, suddenly;

“Good gods, what happened to you?” 

Oscar flinched, he hadn’t seen anyone nearby. But sitting on the floor against the railing, as though he had been casually watching the scene unfolding twenty feet below him, was the white haired boy who had been in Nora’s room earlier. When had he left? Oscar hadn’t noticed.

Down in the foyer, Blake was gesturing with her arms and Weiss pointed to the eastward hall, and the girls followed her down it, Emerald trailing stiffly behind. They didn’t seem to notice Oscar and the other boy. 

Oscar tried to place his face; this was Weiss’s brother. What had his name been? Whitley?

“Are you… spying on them?” Oscar asked.

Whitley raised an eyebrow. “Spying would insinuate that I had some evil ulterior motive.”

“So you were just…?”

“I’m just bored.” Said Whitley simply. “This is a game I used to do at father’s parties- before I became heir and had to actually attend them. Watch people talking and try to make up funny conversations they could be having. Just passing time.”

Oscar remembered the last time he saw Whitley- the only time he’d seen Whitley. It had been a week or so ago by now, at his father’s celebratory party where Nora and Ren split wine on him. He remembered Whitley being very snooty and obnoxious, like he thought he was better than everyone else.

He seemed less obnoxious now, more worn down. His tone was nearly emotionless, and his smile was empty. But he held himself with confidence- like Weiss. Whitley was not nearly as unsure of himself as Oscar was.

“Why don’t you go down there?” Oscar asked.

Whitley scrunched his face up even more. “Why would I? They don’t want me.”

Oscar stiffened at the blatant phrasing of Whitley words, though Whitley himself didn’t seem to see the problem with it. “... You could ask.”

Whitley held his gaze; “If my sister or anyone else in this household wanted me around, they’d call for me.”

“Did Nora call for you?” Oscar asked.

Whitley continued to hold eye contact as he reached a long arm to the top of the railing and stood up. He was a good head or so taller than Oscar, and looked down at him with half lidded eyes. “You ask a lot of questions, you know that?”

Oscar found himself taking a step back. He was not afraid- but anxious. He had been anxious and awkward around the huntsmen when he had first joined them. But he knew them well, now. He didn’t know Whitley. 

The huntsmen were all older than him, so that had been rather intimidating at first, but Whitley looked close to Oscar’s age. He found that to be even more intimidating. Oscar had never really had friends his own age before- he didn’t know how to act around a boy the same age as him.

“Uh, sorry.” Oscar found himself saying.

“Nora was bored.” Said Whitley. “I was bringing something up for Klein and she asked me to sit down and talk to her. Though, she was really talking  _ at  _ me. I couldn’t get a word in.”

_ That does sound like something Ms. Valkyrie would do.  _ Said Ozpin, at nearly the exact time Oscar thought;

_ Yeah, that sounds like Nora. _

Then he cringed.

Whitley didn’t seem to notice. “Apparently she had just found out that I had been the one to call Klein in to help her. She wouldn’t shut up about it.”

Oscar’s eyes widened. “You called Nora a doctor?”

Whitley crossed his arms. “She was dying?”

Oscar only found it odd because everyone regarded Weiss’s brother like he was a mini version of Jacques. Though, the same could be said for Oscar. At least Whitley wasn’t pre destined to merge minds with his father like Oscar was with Ozpin.

“Yeah but,” Oscar began, but was shortly interrupted by Whitley sighing.

“Not you too.” He mourned. “It’s literally not that big of a deal. It holds no significance.”

Oscar shrugged.

_ I’m not quite sure about that.  _ Ozpin spoke thoughtfully.  _ It’s often that our actions speak great volumes to our character. Especially when those acts are done for others. _

_ Now’s not the time for an internal monologue. _ Oscar shot back.

“Is there a particular reason you’re talking to me right now?” Whitley asked. “Aren’t you supposed to be trying to get Ironwood not to bomb Mantle or something? You know, I wasted almost all of the Schnee Dust Company’s cargo ships trying to save that place. It would be really unfortunate if father ever got out of prison and heard of this and got furious at me for it, all for an act that would have been completely wasted.”

Oscar blinked. “Erm, yeah. Yeah, I am.” 

Whitley made a shooing gesture with a flick of his wrist. Wordlessly, Oscar trotted to the staircase. A single foot in the first step, he paused.

“Your name is Whitley, right?” Oscar asked.

Whitley looked back up at him. “That’s right. I’m afraid I don’t know yours.” 

His tone indicated that he didn’t particularly care to know, either. “I’m Oscar.” Oscar said anyway.

Whitley hummed to himself. “I’m going to have to start writing these down.”

He turned on his heel and walked into the hallway Oscar had come from.

_ You know,  _ said Ozpin.  _ You’d think I’d be used to how people grow and change, but humanity still surprises me.  _

As Oscar made his descent down the staircase to meet up with team RWBY and Emerald, he thought to himself,  _ Me too.  _


End file.
